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The change-detection algorithm of GroupDocs.Comparison detects changes across many document parts and blocks:
- Text blocks — paragraphs, words, and characters.
- Tables.
- Images.
- Shapes.
The result document highlights detected changes with colour:
- Added — blue.
- Modified — green.
- Style — green.
- Deleted — red.
The styling scheme is fully customizable — see Customize changes styles.
To compare two documents, follow these steps:
- Instantiate a
Comparerwith the source document path or stream. - Call
add()and specify the target document path or stream. - Call
compare()and specify the result file path or output stream.
The simplest way to compare two documents is by passing file paths to Comparer.
from groupdocs.comparison import Comparer
def compare_documents():
# Initialize Comparer with the source file path
with Comparer("./source.docx") as comparer:
# Add the target file and run the comparison
comparer.add("./target.docx")
comparer.compare("./result.docx")
if __name__ == "__main__":
compare_documents()
source.docx is the source file used in this example. Click here to download it.
target.docx is the target file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 25 KB)
The output file looks like this:
You can also feed Comparer open file streams — useful when the source and target arrive over the network, from a database, or from another in-memory source.
from groupdocs.comparison import Comparer
def compare_documents_from_stream():
# Open the source and target as binary streams
with open("./source.docx", "rb") as source_stream, \
open("./target.docx", "rb") as target_stream:
with Comparer(source_stream) as comparer:
comparer.add(target_stream)
comparer.compare("./result.docx")
if __name__ == "__main__":
compare_documents_from_stream()
source.docx is the source file used in this example. Click here to download it.
target.docx is the target file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 25 KB)
Combine input streams with an output stream to keep everything in memory:
from groupdocs.comparison import Comparer
def compare_documents_to_stream():
with Comparer("./source.docx") as comparer:
comparer.add("./target.docx")
with open("./result.docx", "wb") as out_stream:
comparer.compare(out_stream)
if __name__ == "__main__":
compare_documents_to_stream()
source.docx is the source file used in this example. Click here to download it.
target.docx is the target file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 25 KB)
- Compare multiple documents — compare a source against multiple targets.
- Accept or reject detected changes — review changes individually before producing the result.
- Adjusting comparison sensitivity — fine-tune the change-detection threshold.
- Customize changes styles — change the highlight colours and styles.
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